Saturday, February 21, 2009

As I mentioned yesterday,we have a lot of parsley. There are four large plants and several smaller sets. If it were geographically possible, I would share some with all of you. At this point I am running the risk of spoiling several relationships because of excess parsley offerings. So I needed a recipe that uses lots of parsley. I found chimichurri.

Chimichurri is an Argentinian recipe for a sauce that is a condiment or marinade. There are many different recipes but the basics are parsley, olive oil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper and something acidic.

Here is my version #11 cup parsley loosely packed1/4 cup dried cilantro1/2 cup olive oil2 cloves garlicI left out the onionPinch of saltDash of my After Burner sauce (you can use Tabasco)Juice of one lemon1 teaspoon paprika

Process everything in a food processor until smooth.

This stuff had the prettiest color and tasted fresh and smokey at the same time. Manly Man had smoked some ribs for dinner. I like a little acidic flavor with beef and pork, but most steak sauces are really salty. This was a nice compliment to the rib meat in place of a vinegary barbecue or steak sauce. I also think it would be good on grilled veggies and as a marinade for grilled fish. If you have too much parsley this is a good option.